A high resolution Detached Eddy Simulation (DES) are used to characterize the evolution of a shallow mixing layer developing between two parallel streams in a long open channel over two-dimensional (2D) dunes. The study discusses the vertical non-uniformity in the mixing layer and provides a quantitative characterization of the growth of the large-scale quasi 2D coherent structures with the distance from the splitter plate. The presence of large-scale roughness elements in the form of an array of ...